Techniques and systems for physical manipulation of data storage devices

ABSTRACT

Techniques and systems for storing and retrieving data storage devices of a data storage system are disclosed. In some embodiments, inventory holders are used to store data storage devices used by a data storage system. When data is to be transacted with the data storage devices, mobile drive units locate appropriate inventory holders and transport them to a device reading station, where an appropriate device retrieval unit transacts the data. After the data has been transacted, the data storage devices are returned to the appropriate inventory holders, and the inventory holders are placed by the mobile drive units in locations where they may be accessed in response to further data transactions.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application incorporates by reference for all purposes the full disclosure of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/754,552, filed concurrently herewith, entitled “HETEROGENOUS MEDIA STORAGE AND ORGANIZATION IN AUTOMATED DATA STORAGE SYSTEMS,” co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/754,568, filed concurrently herewith, entitled “TECHNIQUES AND SYSTEMS FOR TRAY-BASED STORAGE AND ORGANIZATION IN AUTOMATED DATA STORAGE SYSTEMS,” and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/754,580, filed concurrently herewith, entitled “FLEXIBLE MEDIA STORAGE AND ORGANIZATION IN AUTOMATED DATA STORAGE SYSTEMS.”

BACKGROUND

The use of network computing and storage has proliferated in recent years. The resources for network computing and storage are often provided by computing resource providers who leverage large-scale networks of computers, servers and storage drives to enable clients, including content providers, online merchants and the like, to host and execute a variety of applications and web services. Content providers and online merchants, who traditionally used on-site servers and storage equipment to host their websites and store and stream content to their customers, often forego on-site hosting and storage and turn to using the resources of the computing resource providers. The usage of network computing allows content providers and online merchants, among others, to efficiently and to adaptively satisfy their computing needs, whereby the computing and storage resources used by the content providers and online merchants are added or removed from a large pool provided by a computing resource provider as need and depending on their needs.

The proliferation of network computing and storage, as well as the attendant increase in the number of entities dependent on network computing and storage, has increased the importance of optimizing data performance and integrity on network computing and storage systems. Data archival systems and services, for example, may use various types of error correcting and error tolerance schemes, such as the implementation of redundancy coding and data sharding. Furthermore, capacity and cost of persisting increasing quantities of data may be mitigated by the use of data storage devices or media that is considerably faster at sequential storage than random access storage, relative to other data storage devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an environment for implementing physical storage of data storage devices using inventory holders, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an environment in which original data of archives may be stored on a data storage system implementing a redundancy code, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates various workflows for storing original data of archives on a plurality of data stores of a data storage system, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates various workflows for storing data in failure-decorrelated subsets of a volume set, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates various workflows for indexing and locating data stored on a data storage system in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates various workflows for mitigating data loss in systems using volume-level redundancy coding techniques, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates various workflows for locating, transporting, and transacting data with data storage devices stored using inventory holders and mobile drive units, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an environment implementing a heterogeneous mix of data storage device types in an inventory holder, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates an environment implementing multiple trays for storing data storage devices on an inventory holder, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 10 schematically illustrates an example process for storing and organizing data storage devices using inventory holders and mobile drive units, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 11 schematically illustrates an example process for processing, indexing, storing, and retrieving data stored on a data storage system, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 12 schematically illustrates an example process for determining failure-decorrelated volume subsets and storing/retrieving data thereto, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 13 schematically illustrates an example process for indexing original data stored on a redundancy coded data storage system, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 14 schematically illustrates an example process for mitigating data loss in redundancy coded data, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 15 schematically illustrates an example process for flexibly configuring a data storage system implementing inventory holders, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 16 schematically illustrates an example process for allocating and laying out a heterogeneous mix of data storage devices to a given inventory holder, according to the characteristics of the allocated data storage devices, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 17 schematically illustrates an example process for using trays, which may be stacked, to store a plurality of data storage devices in an inventory tray, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 18 schematically illustrates an environment, including a computing resource service provider, in which data storage and indexing techniques may be implemented, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 19 schematically illustrates a data storage service capable of implementing various data storage and indexing techniques, in accordance with some embodiments; and

FIG. 20 illustrates an environment in which various embodiments can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, various embodiments will be described. For purposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the embodiment being described.

Techniques described and suggested herein include systems and methods for storing original data of data archives (“archives”) on data storage systems using redundancy coding techniques. For example, redundancy codes, such as erasure codes, may be applied to incoming archives (such as those received from a customer of a computing resource service provider implementing the storage techniques described herein) so as allow the storage of original data of the individual archives available on a minimum of volumes, such as those of a data storage system, while retaining availability, durability, and other guarantees imparted by the application of the redundancy code.

In some embodiments, archives, such as customer archives containing any quantity and nature of data, are received from customers of a computing resource service provider through a service, such as an archival storage service, provided by one or more resources of the computing resource service provider. The archives may be sorted according to one or more common attributes, such as the identity of the customer, the time of upload and/or receipt by, e.g., the archival storage service. Such sorting may be performed so as to minimize the number of volumes on which any given archive is stored. In some embodiments, the original data of the archives is stored as a plurality of shards across a plurality of volumes, the quantity of which (either shards or volumes, which in some cases may have a one to one relationship) may be predetermined according to various factors, including the minimum number of total shards sufficient to reconstruct the original data using a redundancy code.

In some embodiments, the volumes may be grouped into volume sets, and in some of such embodiments, the volume sets may be apportioned into failure-decorrelated subsets of volumes (or “cohorts”). A given volume set may include, depending on the redundancy coding scheme used, volumes that store original data of incoming archives, as well as volumes that store derived data (e.g., with mathematical transformations applied according to the implementing redundancy coding scheme). The volume set may include more volumes than is necessitated by the implemented redundancy coding scheme. In such embodiments, a quantity of failure-decorrelated subsets of the volume set is determined such that the number of volumes in each failure-decorrelated subset corresponds to the number of volumes necessitated by the implemented redundancy coding scheme. In some embodiments, the failure-decorrelated subsets are implemented such that incoming archives to be stored in a given volume set are committed to different failure-decorrelated subsets, according to some apportionment scheme (e.g., based on an attribute of the incoming data itself, in a predetermined sequence, etc.)

In some embodiments, one or more indices may be generated in connection with, e.g., the order in which the archives are to be stored, as determined in connection with the sorting mentioned immediately above. An index may, in some embodiments, be generated for each volume of the plurality, and in such embodiments, may reflect the archives stored on the respective volume to which it applies. The indices may be of any appropriate type, and may include sparse indices. In embodiments where sparse indices are used, the index (e.g., for a given volume) may point to a subset of archives stored or to be stored on, e.g., that volume. The subset may be selected on any basis and for any appropriate interval. Examples may include the identification of the archives located at an interval of x blocks or bytes of the volume, or the identification of the archives at an interval of n archives, where x or n may be predetermined by, e.g., the archival storage service or an administrator thereof.

In some embodiments, the sparse indexes are used in connection with information relating to the sort order of the archives so as to locate archives without necessitating the use of dense indexes, e.g., those that account for every archive on a given volume. Such sort order-related information may reside on the volume(s) or, in some embodiments, on an entity separate from the volume(s). Similarly, the indexes may be stored on the same volume(s) to which they apply, or, in some embodiments, separately from such volume(s). In embodiments where the sort order-related information and/or the indexes are stored on the applicable volumes, they may be included with the original data of the archives and stored therewith as shards, as previously mentioned.

In some embodiments, the original data of the archives (and, in embodiments where the indices are stored on the volumes, the indices) is processed by an entity associated with, e.g., the archival storage service, using a redundancy code, such as an erasure code, so as to generate redundancy coded shards that may be used to regenerate the original data and, if applicable, the indices. In some embodiments, the redundancy code may utilize a matrix of mathematical functions (a “generator matrix”), a portion of which may include an identity matrix. In some of such embodiments, the redundancy coded shards may correspond, at least in part, to the portion of the generator matrix that is outside of the identity matrix. Redundancy coded shards so generated may be stored in further volumes. The total number of volumes may include the volumes bearing the original data (and indices) as well as the volumes containing the redundancy coded shards.

In some embodiments, the volumes bearing the original data may themselves be identity shards that are peers (i.e., are capable of fully participating in redundancy code-based regeneration) with the redundancy coded shards (encoded or derived shards). In such embodiments, bundles (groups) of shards of one or both types may be layered amongst one another, in some cases hierarchically. For example, rather than bearing only original data, one or more identity shards may be treated as a group of other shards, which may include additional identity shards, encoded shards, and/or some combination thereof. In some implementations, all shards, regardless of group/layer membership and/or hierarchy, may be peers and therefore freely interchangeable in terms of their ability to participate in reconstructing data represented across a system.

In some embodiments, redundancy coding schemes configured to store original data in at least some of the shards generated therefrom may impart an implementing system the ability to mitigate data loss even if a minimum quorum quantity of shards representing archive data is unavailable or corrupt. For example, if an implementing data storage system detects that a number of available shards approaches, equals, or drops below the minimum quorum quantity sufficient for reconstruction, the data storage system may prioritize the retrieval of the original data in, e.g., the identity shards and temporarily (or permanently) store them in a different data storage entity as part of the regeneration and/or recovery process. The original data thus stored may be made available to requesting customers, e.g., on demand, used to aid regeneration of the unavailable shards, or exist to provide additional durability guarantees, e.g., to customers of an implementing data storage system.

In some embodiments, retrieval of an archive stored in accordance with the techniques described herein may be requested by an entity, such as a client device under control of a customer of the computing resource service provider and/or the archival storage service provided therefrom, as described in further detail throughout this disclosure. In response to the request, the data storage system (e.g., the system including the aforementioned volumes, and providing the archival storage service) may locate, based on information regarding the sort order of the archives as stored on the volumes, the specific volume on which the archive is located. Thereafter, the index or indices may be used to locate the specific volume, whereupon it is read from the volume and provided to the requesting entity. In embodiments where sparse indexes are employed, the sort order information may be used to locate the nearest location (or archive) that is sequentially prior to the requested archive, whereupon the volume is sequentially read from that location or archive until the requested archive is found.

In some embodiments, a data storage system implemented in accordance with the techniques described herein may store, organize, and access data storage devices (e.g., which may store shards associated with archives, in some cases on a one to one basis) using mobile drive units, which may in some instances be automatically operated. In such embodiments, the data storage devices may be allocated to, and stored in, freely placed and placeable inventory holders. In response to a request for data, the data storage system may determine which data storage devices to retrieve in accordance with the request. The data storage system may further determine the location of one or more of the inventory holders storing the determined data storage devices, and, using the mobile drive unit, cause retrieval of those inventory holders so as to place them in proximity of a device data station. A device retrieval unit associated with the device data station (e.g., attached) selects or “picks” the appropriate data storage devices in accordance with the request and manipulates the selected data storage devices so as to enable the device data station to read and/or write the requisite data to/from the data storage devices in accordance with the aforementioned data request. After the data operation is complete, the data storage devices are returned to the same or different inventory holder from whence they were retrieved, and once the inventory holder is loaded and marked for storage, the inventory holder is relocated, e.g., by the mobile drive unit, to a location where the mobile drive unit may perform further retrieval operations in accordance with further data requests.

In some embodiments, the inventory holders may include a plurality of trays, each of which is configured to store data storage devices, so as to improve the volumetric storage efficiency of the inventory holder. In some embodiments, the trays are vertically stacked with respect to one another. As may be contemplated, in such configurations, some or all of the contents of each tray (e.g., the data storage devices) may be obscured from above by virtue of being vertically stacked. In some of such embodiments, the trays may be horizontally accessible. In some embodiments, access to the contents may be from the sides of the trays, rather than from above. In some embodiments, a lifting device, such as a forklift or other such device associated with a device retrieval unit, may lift vertically stacked trays out of the way so as to reveal a target tray, thus enabling access to the contents from above.

In some embodiments, a heterogeneous mix of data storage device types may be stored on the same tray or inventory holder. In such embodiments, a model may be generated by the data storage system based on characteristics of the data storage devices to be stored on a given tray or inventory holder, and optimized for access, storage efficiency, and the like. Such characteristics may include physical characteristics (e.g., dimensions), performance characteristics, data and/or media standards and/or formats, contents of the data storage devices, and the like. Once the model has been generated, the data storage devices are stored in accordance with the model, and the model may be further used for efficient access to the data storage devices allocated thereby. The model may be updated as the characteristics, or the identity, of the data storage devices stored in a given tray or inventory holder change over time.

In some embodiments, the inventory holders, mobile drive units, and/or device data stations may be freely accessible relative to one another, with no restrictions as to which inventory holders are accessible to any given mobile drive unit, and no restrictions as to which mobile drive units can deliver to which device data stations. As may be contemplated, the freedom of movement and/or placement enabled by the lack of restrictions further improves time-to-retrieval and other retrieval efficiencies. In some embodiments, the inventory holders themselves are placed freely in a given facility, and may be portable without unduly affecting the operation of the overall data storage system or retrievals associated with requests thereto. In some of such embodiments, the inventory holders are marked with fiduciary markers, which identify the associated inventory holders to mobile drive units, which may implement an imaging device to read the fiduciary markers.

In some embodiments, if one of the volumes or a shard stored thereon is detected as corrupt, missing, or otherwise unavailable, a new shard may be generated using the redundancy code applied to generate the shard(s) in the first instance. In some embodiments, the new shard may be a replication of the unavailable shard, such as may be the case if the shard includes original data of the archive(s). In some embodiments, the new shard may be selected from a set of potential shards as generated by, e.g., a generator matrix associated with the redundancy code, so as to differ in content from the unavailable shard (such as may be the case if the unavailable shard was a shard generated from the redundancy code, and therefore contains no original data of the archives). In such cases, in certain embodiments, an entirely new volume may be generated, rather than a shard.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an environment for implementing physical storage of data storage devices using inventory holders, in accordance with some embodiments.

In some embodiments, a data storage system 100 implemented in accordance with the techniques described herein may store, organize, and access data storage devices (e.g., which may store shards associated with archives, in some cases on a one to one basis, as further described herein) using mobile drive units 102. The mobile drive units 102 may be any entity that is electronically controllable, such as by an automated system, and which is capable of engaging objects (such as by lifting them) such as inventory holders, and mobilizing them toward a destination, such as a device data station, described in further detail herein. The mobile drive units 102, in embodiments where multiple mobile drive units 102 are implemented, may differ in various characteristics, such as physical dimensions, load capacity, tray configuration, and the like, relative to other mobile drive units 102 in the same system. The mobile drive units 102, as well as other components, techniques, and systems mentioned and described herein, in some embodiments have other capabilities and characteristics described in prior-filed U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,873,469, 7,894,932, 8,725,286, 7,402,018, 8,831,984, and 8,972,045, each of which are hereby fully incorporated by reference.

In such embodiments, the data storage devices may be allocated to, and stored in, freely placed and placeable inventory holders 104. The inventory holders 104 may be any device, such as a storage unit, capable of holding inventory, such as data storage devices, in a structured or unstructured fashion, as described in further detail herein. The inventory holders 104 may include a number of components that organize, separate, and/or secure the contents therein. Examples of such components may include trays, which may in some cases be vertically stacked, horizontally arranged, or otherwise arranged, that hold inventory (e.g., data storage devices), in a fashion that enables other entities to access and/or view them from some position, such as vertically from above, from the side (horizontally), or some combination thereof. As with the mobile drive units 102, the inventory holders 104, as well as other functionalities described herein, may have other capabilities and characteristics described in prior-filed U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,873,469, 7,894,932, 8,725,286, 7,402,018, 8,831,984 and 8,972,045, each of which are hereby fully incorporated by reference.

In some embodiments, the inventory holders 106 may hold different types of data storage devices relative to other inventory holders 104, and, in some embodiments, a given inventory holder 104 may hold a heterogeneous mix of two or more types of data storage devices. As further discussed herein, data storage devices may be of any suitable type for storing data, and may be differentiated on one or more of a number of characteristics, including durability, performance, data standard, media standard (e.g., tape device standards), physical dimensions and/or configuration, age (either of the data storage device or data contained therein), data type, and the like.

Durability may be measured in terms of annualized failure rate (“AFR”), daily failure rate (“DFR”), hourly failure rate (“HFR”), and the like. As used herein, the durability of a data object may be understood to be an estimate of the probability that the data object will not unintentionally become irretrievable (also referred to herein as “unavailable”). This durability is an estimated probability and is generally expressed as a percentage (e.g., 99.9999 percent). This durability is based on assumptions of probabilities of certain failures (e.g., the AFR of devices used to store the data) and may be based on an average failure rate, a maximum failure rate, a minimum failure rate, a mean failure rate, or some other such failure rate. The durability may be based on a statistical average of the failure over a collection of drives when there are many different drives and/or when there are many different types of drives. The durability may also be based on historical measurements of the failure of drives and/or statistical sampling of the historical measurements of the failure of drives. The durability may also be correlated with the probability that a data object will not unintentionally become unavailable such as, for example, basing the durability on the probability that a data object will unintentionally become unavailable. As may be contemplated, the methods of determining durability of data described herein are merely illustrative examples and other such methods of determining durability of data may be considered as within the scope of the present disclosure.

Durability, as mentioned throughout this disclosure, may be calculated as a composite of failure rates associated with all layers, actions, and/or components of a given chain of entities associated with storing data for which durability is calculated. For example, a storage device may have a two percent (0.02) annual failure rate (“AFR”). Over the first hour that the data may be stored on that storage device there is, on average, a 0.00023 percent chance that the block storage device will fail (i.e., the block storage device may be 99.99977 percent reliable for the first hour). Similarly, the storage device may be 99.9945 percent reliable for the first day and 99.989 percent reliable through the second day. If it is desired that the data be 99.999 percent reliable (also referred to herein as having “five 9's” of durability), the data should be removed from the storage device with a two percent AFR before approximately four hours have passed (0.00023 percent chance of data loss per hour). If it is desired that the data be 99.99 percent reliable (also referred to herein as having “four 9s” of durability), the data should be removed from the storage device with a two percent AFR before two days have passed (0.0055 percent chance of data loss per day). As may be contemplated, the composite durability or AFR may be affected by the data storage device or other entity to which the data is being moved.

As such data generally may become less volatile over the first hour, or the first day, or the first two days, the data can then be moved to a more durable redundant storage system where the desired durability (e.g., four 9's, five 9's, or more) may be achieved by the durability of the data storage medium as well as by one or more redundancy encoding techniques such as those described herein.

In some embodiments, the inventory holders 104, 106 may be set up in a layout that allows the mobile drive units 102 to freely traverse and engage any of the inventory holders 104, 106. In certain embodiments, one or more of the inventory holders 108, or positions where such inventory holders 108 may ordinarily be located, may be configured such that they hold few or no data storage devices (or inventory holders 108), so as to provide a “spare area” that allows for a temporarily holding spot for system optimization, e.g., in cases where service rate (as may follow a high incoming data request rate) exceeds a certain threshold above which the data storage system 100 is temporarily unable to return a given data storage device, or inventory holder 104, 106, to an optimal position for future access. Such “spare areas” 108 may be positioned such that they are quickly accessible by, e.g., the mobile drive units, and may in some instances be interspersed throughout the overall layout of inventory holders.

In response to a request for data, e.g., to write, read, move, copy, or otherwise manipulate data associated with one or more data storage devices, the data storage system 100 may determine which data storage devices to retrieve in accordance with the request. The data storage system may further determine the location of one or more of the inventory holders 104, 106 storing the determined data storage devices, and, using an available mobile drive unit 102, cause retrieval of those inventory holders 104, 106 so as to place them in proximity of an appropriate device data station 110, 112.

The device data station 110, 112 may be any device or other entity capable of reading one or more types of data storage devices stored on the inventory holders 104, 106. For example, the device data station may include one or more physical readers (e.g., tape drives, optical drives, data ports, and the like) that allow transaction of data between the data storage device and other portions of the data storage system 100, and eventually, a customer of the data storage system 100. In some embodiments, a given device data station 110 may be configured to read one specific type of data storage device, such as tape media. In some embodiments, a given data station 110 may be configured to read multiple types of data storage devices. In some embodiments, some device data stations 110, 112 may be capable of manipulating and/or transacting data with data storage devices of different types relative to one another. In some embodiments, the device data stations 110, 112 are accessible to any mobile drive unit 102.

A device retrieval unit associated with (e.g., attached to and/or controlled by) the device data station 110, 112 selects or “picks” the appropriate data storage devices in accordance with the request and manipulates the selected data storage devices so as to enable the device data station 110, 112 to read and/or write the requisite data to/from the data storage devices in accordance with the aforementioned data request. After the data operation is complete, the data storage devices are returned to the same or different inventory holder 104, 106 from whence they were retrieved, and once the inventory holder is loaded and marked for storage, the inventory holder is relocated, e.g., by a mobile drive unit (which may be the same or different than the one that retrieved the inventory holder 104, 106 in the first instance), to a location where the mobile drive unit may perform further retrieval operations in accordance with further data requests. In some embodiments, that location may be spare area 108, whether temporarily or permanently. As may thus be contemplated, the layout of the inventory holders 104, 106 may be dynamic, e.g., change over time, usage, and access. In some embodiments, however, the layout may be fixed, or semi-fixed, and the layout may change only periodically, or as a result of a manual process (e.g., setting of predetermined configurations of inventory holders).

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an environment in which original data of archives may be stored on a data storage system implementing a redundancy code, in accordance with some embodiments. One or more client entities 202, such as those under control of a customer of a computing resource service provider, submit archive(s) 204 to a data storage system 206 for storage. The client entities 202 may be any entity capable of transacting data with a data storage system, such as over a network (including the Internet). Examples include physical computing systems (e.g., servers, desktop computers, laptop computers, thin clients, and handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets), virtual computing systems (e.g., as may be provided by the computing resource service provider using one or more resources associated therewith), services (e.g., such as those connecting to the data storage system 206 via application programming interface calls, web service calls, or other programmatic methods), and the like.

The data storage system 206 may be any computing resource or collection of such resources capable of processing data for storage, and interfacing with one or more resources to cause the storage of the processed data. Examples include physical computing systems (e.g., servers, desktop computers, laptop computers, thin clients, and handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets), virtual computing systems (e.g., as may be provided by the computing resource service provider using one or more resources associated therewith), services (e.g., such as those connecting to the data storage system 206 via application programming interface calls, web service calls, or other programmatic methods), and the like. In some embodiments, the resources of the data storage system 206, as well as the data storage system 206 itself, may be one or more resources of a computing resource service provider, such as that described in further detail below. In some embodiments, the data storage system 206 and/or the computing resource service provider provides one or more archival storage services and/or data storage services, such as those described in further below, through which the client entities 202 may transact data such as the archives 204.

The archives 204 may include any quantity of data in any format. For example, the archives 204 may be single files, or, in some embodiments, may include several files. The archives 204 may be encrypted by, e.g., the client device(s) 202, or, in some embodiments, may be encrypted by a component of the data storage system 206 after receipt of the archives 204, such as on the request of a customer of the data storage system 206 and/or the computing resource service provider.

The data storage system 206 may sort the archives 204 according to one or more criteria (and in the case where a plurality of criteria is used for the sort, such criteria may be sorted against sequentially and in any order appropriate for the implementation). Such criteria may be attributes common to some or all of the archives, and may include the identity of the customer, the time of upload (e.g., by the client device 202) and/or receipt (by the data storage system 206), archive size, expected volume and/or shard boundaries relative to the boundaries of the archives (e.g., so as to minimize the number of archives breaking across shards and/or volumes), and the like. As mentioned, such sorting may be performed so as to minimize the number of volumes on which any given archive is stored. Such techniques may be used, e.g., to optimize storage in embodiments where the overhead of retrieving data from multiple volumes is greater than the benefit of parallelizing the retrieval from the multiple volumes. Information regarding the sort order may be persisted, e.g., by the data storage system 206, for use in techniques described in further detail herein.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, one or more indices may be generated in connection with, e.g., the order in which the archives are to be stored, as determined in connection with the sorting mentioned immediately above. The index may be a single index or may be a multipart index, and may be of any appropriate architecture and may be generated according to any appropriate method. For example, the index may be a bitmap index, dense index, sparse index, or a reverse index. Embodiments where multiple indices are used may implement different types of indices according to the properties of, e.g., the archives 204 to be stored via the data storage system 206. For example, a data storage system 206 may generate a dense index for archives over a specified size (as the size of the index itself may be small relative to the number of archives stored on a given volume), and may also generate a sparse index for archives under that specified size (as the ratio of index size to archive size increases).

The data storage system 206 is connected to or includes one or more volumes 208 on which the archives 204, and in some embodiments, the generated indices, are stored. The volumes 208 may be any container, whether logical or physical, capable of storing or addressing data stored therein. In some embodiments, the volumes 208 may map on a one-to-one basis with the data storage devices on which they reside (and, in some embodiments, may actually be the data storage devices themselves). In some embodiments, the size and/or quantity of the volumes 208 may be independent of the capacity of the data storage devices on which they reside (e.g., a set of volumes may each be of a fixed size such that a second set of volumes may reside on the same data storage devices as the first set). The data storage devices may include any resource or collection of resources, such as those of a computing resource service provider, that are capable of storing data, and may be physical, virtual, or some combination of the two. For example, the data storage devices may be data storage facilities, such as those housing a plurality of physical storage servers and/or other such entities. Other examples of data storage devices, as referred to throughout this disclosure, include tapes (e.g., tape media), optical media (e.g., DVDs, Blu-Ray), magnetooptical media, hard disk drives, solid state drives, solid state media, memory resistor-based devices (e.g., memristors), and the like, Data storage devices may include self-contained devices that include storage media and integrated electronics and other mechanisms for reading the media, or, in some embodiments, may include only the storage media itself (e.g., thereby requiring some external mechanism to retrieve data stored thereon).

As previously described, one or more indices may, in some embodiments, be generated for each volume 208 of the plurality, and in such embodiments, may reflect the archives stored on the respective volume 208 to which it applies. In embodiments where sparse indices are used, a sparse index for a given volume may point to a subset of archives 204 stored or to be stored on that volume 208, such as those archives 204 which may be determined to be stored on the volume 208 based on the sort techniques mentioned previously. The subset of volumes to be indexed in the sparse index may be selected on any appropriate basis and for any appropriate interval. For example, the sparse index may identify the archives to be located at every x blocks or bytes of the volume (e.g., independently of the boundaries and/or quantity of the archives themselves). As another example, the sparse index may identify every nth archive to be stored on the volume 208. As may be contemplated, the indices (whether sparse or otherwise), may be determined prior to actually storing the archives on the respective volumes. In some embodiments, a space may be reserved on the volumes so as to generate and/or write the appropriate indices after the archives 204 have been written to the volumes 208.

In some embodiments, the sparse indexes are used in connection with information relating to the sort order of the archives so as to locate archives without necessitating the use of dense indexes, e.g., those that account for every archive 204 on a given volume 208. Such sort order-related information may reside on the volume(s) 208 or, in some embodiments, on an entity separate from the volume(s) 208, such as in a data store or other resource of a computing resource service provider. Similarly, the indexes may be stored on the same volume(s) 208 to which they apply, or, in some embodiments, separately from such volume(s) 208.

As mentioned, the archives 204 are stored, bit for bit (e.g., the “original data” of the archives), on a subset of the plurality of volumes 208. Also as mentioned, appropriate indices may also be stored on the applicable subset of the plurality of volumes 208. The original data of the archives is stored as a plurality of shards across a plurality of volumes, the quantity of which (either shards or volumes, which in some cases may have a one to one relationship) may be predetermined according to various factors, including the minimum number of total shards sufficient to reconstruct the original data using a redundancy code. In some embodiments, the number of volumes used to store the original data of the archives is the minimum quantity of shards sufficient to reconstruct the original data from a plurality of shards generated by a redundancy code from the original data. As an example, FIG. 2 illustrates five volumes, three of which contain original data 210 and two of which contain derived data 212, such as redundancy coded data. In the illustrated example, the redundancy code used may require any three shards to regenerate original data, and therefore, a quantity of three volumes may be used to write the original data (even prior to any application of the redundancy code).

The volumes 208 bearing the original data 210 may each contain or be considered as shards unto themselves. In embodiments where the sort order-related information and/or the indexes are stored on the applicable volumes 208, they may be included with the original data of the archives and stored therewith as shards, as previously mentioned. In the illustrated example, the original data 210 is stored as three shards (which may include the respective indices) on three associated volumes 208. In some embodiments, the original data 210 (and, in embodiments where the indices are stored on the volumes, the indices) is processed by an entity associated with, e.g., the archival storage service, using a redundancy code, such as an erasure code, so as to generate the remaining shards, which contain encoded information rather than the original data of the archives. The original data 210 may be processed using the redundancy code at any time after being sorted, such as prior to being stored on the volumes, contemporaneously with such storage, or after such storage.

Such encoded information may be any mathematically computed information derived from the original data, and depends on the specific redundancy code applied. As mentioned, the redundancy code may include erasure codes (such as online codes, Luby transform codes, raptor codes, parity codes, Reed-Solomon codes, Cauchy codes, Erasure Resilient Systematic Codes, regenerating codes, or maximum distance separable codes) or other forward error correction codes. In some embodiments, the redundancy code may implement a generator matrix that implements mathematical functions to generate multiple encoded objects correlated with the original data to which the redundancy code is applied. In some of such embodiments, an identity matrix is used, wherein no mathematical functions are applied and the original data (and, if applicable, the indexes) are allowed to pass straight through. In such embodiments, it may be therefore contemplated that the volumes bearing the original data (and the indexes) may correspond to objects encoded from that original data by the identity matrix rows of the generator matrix of the applied redundancy code, while volumes bearing derived data correspond to other rows of the generator matrix. In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the five volumes 208 include three volumes that have shards (e.g., identity shards) corresponding to the original data of the archives 210, while two have encoded shards corresponding to the derived data 212. In this example, the applied redundancy code may result in the data being stored in a 3:5 scheme, wherein any three shards of the five stored shards are required to regenerate the original data, regardless of whether the selected three shards contain the original data or the derived data.

In some embodiments, if one of the volumes 208 or a shard stored thereon is detected as corrupt, missing, or otherwise unavailable, a new shard may be generated using the redundancy code applied to generate the shard(s) in the first instance. The new shard may be stored on the same volume or a different volume, depending, for example, on whether the shard is unavailable for a reason other than the failure of the volume. The new shard may be generated by, e.g., the data storage system 206, by using a quantity of the remaining shards sufficient to regenerate the original data (and the index, if applicable) stored across all volumes, regenerating that original data, and either replacing the portion of the original data corresponding to that which was unavailable (in the case that the unavailable shard contains original data), or reapplying the redundancy code so as to provide derived data for the new shard.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the new shard may be a replication of the unavailable shard, such as may be the case if the unavailable shard includes original data of the archive(s). In some embodiments, the new shard may be selected from a set of potential shards as generated by, e.g., a generator matrix associated with the redundancy code, so as to differ in content from the unavailable shard (such as may be the case if the unavailable shard was a shard generated from the redundancy code, and therefore contains no original data of the archives). As discussed throughout this disclosure, the shards and/or volumes may be grouped and/or layered.

In some embodiments, retrieval of an archive stored in accordance with the techniques described herein may be requested by an entity, such as a client entity 202 under control of a customer of the computing resource service provider and/or the archival storage service provided therefrom, as described in further detail throughout this disclosure. In response to the request, the data storage system 206 may locate, based on information regarding the sort order of the archives 204 as stored on the volumes 208, the specific volume 208 on which the archive 204 is located. Thereafter, the index or indices may be used to locate the specific archive, whereupon it is read from the volume and provided to the requesting client entity 202. In embodiments where sparse indexes are employed, the sort order information may be used to locate the nearest location (or archive) that is sequentially prior to the requested archive, whereupon the volume is sequentially read from that location or archive until the requested archive is found. In embodiments where multiple types of indices are employed, the data storage system 206 may initially determine which of the indices includes the most efficient location information for the request archive based on assessing the criteria used to deploy the multiple types of indices in the first instance. For example, if archives under a specific size are indexed in a sparse index and archives equal to or over that size are indexed in a parallel dense index, the data storage system 206 may first determine the size of the requested archive, and if the requested archive is larger than or equal to the aforementioned size boundary, the dense index may be used so as to more quickly obtain the precise location of the requested archive.

In some embodiments, the volumes 208 may be grouped such that each given volume 208 has one or more cohorts 214. In such embodiments, a volume set (e.g., all of the illustrated volumes 208) may be implemented that incoming archives to be stored on the volumes are apportioned to one or more failure-decorrelated subsets of the volume set. The failure-decorrelated subsets may be some combination of the volumes 208 of the volume subset, where the quantity of volumes correlates to a number of shards required for the implemented redundancy code. In the illustrated example, the overall volume set may comprise two failure-decorrelated subsets (volumes in a horizontal row) where a given constituent volume 208 is paired with a cohort (e.g., 214). In some embodiments, the incoming archives are apportioned to one or more of the cohorts in the failure-decorrelated subset according to, for example, a predetermined sequence, based on one or more attributes of the incoming archives, and the like.

The illustrated example shows, for clarity, a pair-wise cohort scheme, though other schemes are contemplated as within scope of this disclosure, some of which are outlined in greater detail herein. In the illustrated example, some of the volumes of the volume set store original data of incoming archives (e.g., 210, 216), while others store derived data (e.g., 212). The system (e.g., 206), may implement a number of failure-decorrelated subsets to which to store the incoming archives, and in the pair-wise scheme pictured, the volumes used for a given archive may differ based on some arbitrary or predetermined pattern. As illustrated, some archives may be apportioned to volumes of a given cohort that are assigned to one pattern, or failure-decorrelated subset (e.g., as shown by shaded archives and derived data 216), while others are apportioned to volumes in a different pattern (e.g., solid archives and derived data 210). The patterns, as mentioned, may be arbitrary, predefined, and/or in some cases, sensitive to attributes of the incoming data. In some embodiments, patterns may not be used at all, and the member volumes of a given failure-decorrelated subset may be selected randomly from a pool of volumes in the volume set.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates various workflows for storing original data of archives on a plurality of data stores of a data storage system, in accordance with some embodiments. A data storage system 302, which in some embodiments may be similar to the data storage system 306 described above in connection with FIG. 2, includes or is connected to a plurality of volumes 304, which may be similar to the volumes 308, also described above in connection with FIG. 2. Archives 306, such as those received from client entities 302 described in connection with FIG. 2, are processed by the data storage system 302 according to the techniques described in further detail herein.

As previously discussed, the data storage system 302 may sort the archives 306 according to one or more criteria (and in the case where a plurality of criteria is used for the sort, such criteria may be sorted against sequentially and in any order appropriate for the implementation). Such criteria may be attributes common to some or all of the archives, and may include the identity of the customer, abstractions defined by the customer (e.g., larger data objects associated with multiple archives of the same customer), the time of upload and/or receipt, archive size, expected volume and/or shard boundaries relative to the boundaries of the archives (e.g., so as to minimize the number of archives breaking across shards and/or volumes), unique identifiers of the archives themselves, and the like. As previously mentioned, such sorting may be performed so as to minimize the number of volumes on which any given archive is stored. For example, larger archives may be sorted based on expected volume size, such that larger archives are stored earlier in the volume and increasingly smaller archives are stored later in the volume. Such techniques may be used, e.g., to optimize storage in embodiments where the overhead of retrieving data from multiple volumes is greater than the benefit of parallelizing the retrieval from the multiple volumes. For example, devices using removable media may incur significant latency penalties when the media are physically changed, and the sort order may concatenate and apportion archives so as to minimize the number of removable media sufficient for the retrieval of the archives. As previously mentioned, information regarding the sort order may be persisted, e.g., by the data storage system 302, for use in techniques described in further detail herein.

In some embodiments, the data storage system 302 may sort the archives 306 two or more times, at least one of which may correspond to the various characteristics of the data storage system 302 and/or the volume 304 itself. For example, a first sort may include one or more of the criteria delineated above, and a second sort may, incident to actual storage of the archives 306 on one or more volumes 304, re-sort the sorted archives according to boundaries, storage space, and other volume characteristics, so as to optimize the storage of the archives 306.

As previously described (e.g., in connection with FIG. 2), one or more indices, of one or more types may, in some embodiments, be generated for each volume 304 of the plurality, and in such embodiments, may reflect the archives stored on the respective volume 304 to which it applies. In some embodiments, the indexes are used in connection with information relating to the sort order of the archives 306 so as to locate archives without necessitating the use of dense indexes, e.g., those that account for every archive 304 on a given volume 308. Such sort order-related information may reside on the volume(s) 304 or, in some embodiments, on an entity separate from the volume(s) 304, such as in a data store or other resource of a computing resource service provider. Similarly, the indexes may be stored on the same volume(s) 304 to which they apply, or, in some embodiments, separately from such volume(s) 304.

As mentioned, the original data 312 of archives 306 are stored on a subset of the plurality of volumes 304, and the quantity of the subset of volumes may be equal to the minimum number of shards required by the redundancy code to regenerate the original data. Also as mentioned, appropriate indices may also be stored on the applicable subset of the plurality of volumes 308, in connection with the original data 312 of the stored archives 308. The original data of the archives is stored as a plurality of shards across a plurality of volumes, the quantity of which (either shards or volumes, which in some cases may have a one to one relationship) may be predetermined according to various factors, including the minimum number of total shards sufficient to reconstruct the original data using a redundancy code.

As an example, FIG. 3 illustrates five volumes, three of which contain original data 312 of stored archives 308 (corresponding to the incoming archives 306), and two of which contain data 314 derived from mathematical functions of the applied redundancy code. In the illustrated example, the redundancy code used may require any three shards to regenerate original data, and therefore, a quantity of three volumes may be used to write the original data (prior to any application of the redundancy code). As discussed further herein, though a single set of five volumes 304 is illustrated, the volumes and/or shards may be grouped and/or layered in any configuration, including hierarchically.

Similarly to previously discussed, the volumes 304 storing the original data 312 of the stored archives 308 are processed, at a volume level, by an entity associated with, e.g., the archival storage service, using a redundancy code, such as an erasure code, so as to generate the remaining shards 314, which contain encoded information rather than the original data of the archives. As previously mentioned, the original data 312 may be processed using the redundancy code at any time after being sorted, such as prior to being stored on the volumes, contemporaneously with such storage, or after such storage. As illustrated by the shaded archive 310, a given archive may, in certain cases, break between two (or possibly more) volumes 304, due to size, placement, and the like. In embodiments where the redundancy code is applied at a volume level (e.g., the entirety of the contents of the volumes bearing the original data of the archives being considered as a single data object to be processed by the redundancy code), failure of one of the two volumes (or shards) on which the original data of the illustrated archive 310 resides may not necessitate rebuilding of both volumes, but only the volume that is unavailable.

The encoded information 314 may be any mathematically computed information derived from the original data 312, and depends on the specific redundancy code applied. In some embodiments, the redundancy code may implement a generator matrix that implements mathematical functions to generate multiple encoded objects correlated with the original data to which the redundancy code is applied. In some of such embodiments, an identity matrix is used, wherein no mathematical functions are applied and the original data (and, if applicable, the indexes) are allowed to pass straight through. It may be therefore contemplated that the volumes bearing the original data (and the indexes) 308 may correspond to objects encoded from that original data by the identity matrix rows of the generator matrix of the applied redundancy code, while volumes bearing derived data 314 correspond to other rows of the generator matrix.

Similarly to previously discussed, if one of the volumes 304 or a shard stored thereon is detected as corrupt, missing, or otherwise unavailable, a new shard may be generated using the redundancy code applied to generate the shard(s) in the first instance. The new shard may be stored on the same volume or a different volume, depending, for example, on whether the shard is unavailable for a reason other than the failure of the volume. The new shard may be generated by, e.g., the data storage system 302, by using a quantity of the remaining shards sufficient to regenerate the original data (and the index, if applicable) stored across all volumes, regenerating that original data, and either replacing the portion of the original data corresponding to that which was unavailable (in the case that the unavailable shard contains original data), or reapplying the redundancy code so as to provide derived data for the new shard. In embodiments where layered redundancy coding is used, in some of such embodiments, a subset (e.g., group) of the shards may be used to locally regenerate a given volume 304 and/or shard from shards within that particular subset, and if such local regeneration is not feasible, shards from outside a given subset may be used (e.g., those shards part of a higher hierarchical layer or other group).

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the new shard may be a replication of the unavailable shard, such as may be the case if the unavailable shard includes original data of the archive(s). In some embodiments, the new shard may be selected from a set of potential shards as generated by, e.g., a generator matrix associated with the redundancy code, so as to differ in content from the unavailable shard (such as may be the case if the unavailable shard was a shard generated from the redundancy code, and therefore contains no original data of the archives).

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates various workflows for storing data in failure-decorrelated subsets of a volume set, in accordance with some embodiments. A volume set 402 includes a plurality of volumes 404, which may in some instances be similar in implementation and characteristics to the volumes (e.g. 308) described in at least FIGS. 2 and 3 above. As pictured, the volumes 404 may be grouped such that each given volume 404 has one or more cohorts 406. In such embodiments, the volume set 402 may be implemented that incoming archives to be stored on the volumes are apportioned to one or more failure-decorrelated subsets 412 of the volume set (depicted illustratively by four generally horizontal traces). The failure-decorrelated subsets may be some combination of the volumes 404, 406 of the volume subset 402, where the quantity of volumes in each failure-decorrelated subset 412 correlates to a number of shards required for the implemented redundancy code.

As depicted, some of the volumes of the volume set 402 are designated as storing original data 408 of archives to be stored, and others are designated as storing derived data 410, such as may be the case when a redundancy code and volume-level encoding techniques such as described elsewhere herein are implemented. However, other storage mechanisms and schemes are contemplated hereby, including object-level encoding techniques. As previously mentioned, and in the illustrated example, the overall volume set 402 may comprise multiple failure-decorrelated subsets (volumes along one of the four horizontal traces depicted) where a given constituent volume 404 is paired with one or more cohort (e.g., 406). In some embodiments, the incoming archives are apportioned to one or more of the cohorts participating in one or more of the failure-decorrelated subsets 412 according to, for example, a predetermined sequence, based on one or more attributes of the incoming archives, and the like.

The illustrated example shows, for clarity, a pair-wise cohort scheme, though other schemes are contemplated as within scope of this disclosure, some of which are outlined in greater detail herein. As mentioned, in the illustrated example, some of the volumes 404, 406, 408 of the volume set 402 store original data of incoming archives (e.g., 406), while others store derived data (e.g., 410). The system may implement a number of failure-decorrelated subsets 412 to which to store the incoming archives, and in the pair-wise scheme pictured, the volumes used for a given archive may differ based on some arbitrary or predetermined pattern (such as those depicted by the horizontal traces 412). As illustrated, some archives may be apportioned to volumes of a given cohort that are assigned to one pattern or failure-decorrelated subset 412, while others are apportioned to volumes in a different pattern 412. The size of a given failure-decorrelated subset 412 may be adjusted, in some embodiments, to account for the characteristics of the expected incoming archives, the volumes themselves, or a combination. For example, the failure-decorrelated subsets 412 may be configured to have an arbitrary byte-size boundary (e.g., may contain X bytes), an object quantity boundary (e.g., may include X objects), or be a value derived from the quantity of failure-decorrelated subsets 412 desired.

The patterns, as mentioned, may be arbitrary, predefined, and/or in some cases, sensitive to attributes of the incoming data. For example, in the planar representation shown, the patterns 412 may be selected such that each of the volumes selected for the patterns are evenly allocated and/or accessed, with few or none of the members of each given cohort (e.g., vertical pair) over- or underrepresented in a given pattern. The patterns 412 may be predefined, e.g., independently of the attributes of the incoming data and selected to optimize some operational parameter, e.g., mean time between failure or annualized failure rate of each volume or device thereon, performance of each volume and/or device thereon, minimization of slack space, power-on time, and the like, and each pattern may be used and reused in some sequence and/or at some interval. For example, each N number of archives are stored to a given failure-decorrelated subset 412 before the following N archives are stored to the next failure-decorrelated subset in the sequence, and so on.

In other examples, attributes of the incoming archives may be used to apportion archives having those attributes to a given failure-decorrelated subset 412. For example, an identity value (or hash thereof), either unique to the incoming archive or a customer thereof, may be mapped such that a given range of values within the possible extent of values is mapped to a given sequence. In some embodiments, as a result, a customer may be able to have partial or full control over the specific failure-decorrelated subset to which their archives are stored.

In some embodiments, patterns may not be used at all, and the member volumes of a given failure-decorrelated subset may be selected randomly from a pool of volumes in the volume set. For example, the patterns 412 may be constructed out of random or pseudorandom combinations of eligible volumes (e.g., with the correct number of volumes capable of storing original data 404 and the correct number of volumes capable of storing derived data 410, according to the specific redundancy coding used.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates various workflows for indexing and locating data stored on a data storage system in accordance with some embodiments. A representative volume 502, which in some embodiments is similar to the volumes described above in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2, stores a plurality of archives 504, including the original data 506 as, e.g., received from a customer, such as that of a data storage system or other resource and/or service of a computing resource service provider to which the data storage system is attached. The archives 504 may have been sorted in connection with one of the techniques described above in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3, and information regarding the sort order may be persisted by, e.g., a resource directly or indirectly connected with the volume 502. The volume 502 may reside on (or consist of) one or more storage devices that are optimized for sequential data access, relative to random data access.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, one or more indices 508 may be generated in connection with, e.g., the order in which the archives are to be stored, as determined in connection with the sorting mentioned previously. The index may be a single index or may be a multipart index, and may be of any appropriate architecture and may be generated according to any appropriate method. For example, the index may be a bitmap index, dense index, sparse index, or a reverse index. Embodiments where multiple indices are used may implement different types of indices according to the properties of, e.g., the archives 504 to be stored in the volume 502. For example, the volume 502 may utilize a dense index for archives over a specified size (as the size of the index itself may be small relative to the number of archives stored on a given volume), and may also generate a sparse index for archives under that specified size (as the ratio of index size to archive size increases).

In embodiments where sparse indices are used, a sparse index 508 for a given volume may point to subindexes 510, which in turn mark representative locations on the volume. The subindexes 510 may be an abstraction that points to data that resides at a predetermined interval. In some embodiments, the subindexes 510 may be additional data or metadata that is stored in connection with (or in some embodiments, directly upon) the volume, and at a predetermined interval. In such embodiments, it may be contemplated that the subindexes 510 may be stored as part of the shard on the volume, in a similar fashion as described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2 above for the index and the original data of the archives.

In some embodiments, the predetermined interval may be in blocks, bytes, or other units of data. For example, the subindexes may identify the archives to be located at every x blocks or bytes of the volume (e.g., independently of the boundaries and/or quantity of the archives themselves). In some embodiments, the predetermined interval may be delinated by number of volumes. For example, the subindex may point to every nth archive to be stored on the volume 502. As may contemplated, the sparse index 508 (and in some embodiments, the subindexes 510) may be generated and/or written at a time before the storage of the archives 504, contemporaneously with such storage, or after such storage. In some embodiments, the sparse index 508 and the subindexes 510 may be stored in a reserved space on the volume, e.g., after the archives 504 have been stored.

In some embodiments, the sparse index 508 is used in connection with information relating to the predetermined sort order of the archives 504 so as to locate specific archives. As previously mentioned, such sort order-related information may reside on the volume(s) 502 or, in some embodiments, on an entity separate from the volume(s) 502, such as in a data store or other resource of a computing resource service provider. An entity requesting a given archive stored on the volume 502 may determine, based on the sort order-related information and by reading the index 508, the nearest subindex that is sequentially prior to the requested archive on the volume 502. The requesting entity may then cause the volume 502 to be sequentially read from the location of that subindex 510 until the requested archive is located and fully read.

In embodiments where multiple types of indices are employed, the requesting entity may initially determine which of the indices includes the most efficient location information for the requested archive based on assessing the criteria used to deploy the multiple types of indices in the first instance. For example, if archives under a specific size are indexed in a sparse index and archives equal to or over that size are indexed in a parallel dense index, the requesting entity may first determine the size of the requested archive, and if the requested archive is larger than or equal to the aforementioned size boundary, may use the dense index in favor of the sparse index as to more quickly obtain the precise location of the requested archive.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates various workflows for mitigating data loss in systems using volume-level redundancy coding techniques, in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, a group, layer, or set of redundancy coded shards representing one or more archives may be encoded such that the set includes identity shards 602 having some or all of the original data of the archives and encoded shards 604 including information derived from the original data, e.g., through one or more redundancy codes. In the case that some of the shards become unavailable 606, 608, various regeneration techniques, such as those described herein, may be initiated so as to attempt to bring those unavailable shards online. In some embodiments, if the total number of available shards drops to or below a predetermined level, such as one determined in connection with the minimum quorum quantity for the group of shards, the regeneration process may be initiated by first copying (or copying in parallel with other portions of the regeneration process) some or all of the available identity shards 602 to a data store 610, such as a cache, a data storage device, or other data storage entity to which the implementing data storage system has access. The data store 610 may be a part of the implementing data storage system, or, in some embodiments, may be separate from it.

As may be contemplated, in some cases, at the time at which the copying process is initiated, the actual number of available shards may be less than the minimum quorum quantity, or, in some cases, may drop below that minimum quorum quantity during part of the copying or the regeneration process. Under such circumstances, the shard set cannot be fully rebuilt, but by virtue of copying some or all of the identity shards to temporary storage, some of the represented data may be recovered.

The identity shards 602 copied to the data store 610 may be used for a variety of purposes while resident therein. For example, customer request for data represented by an otherwise unviable shard set may be serviced using original data stored in the data store 610. Additionally, the identity shards 602 may be used to aid the regeneration process. For example, if the number of available shards in the set drops below the minimum quorum quantity, e.g., during the regeneration process, if one or more of the identity shards was copied to the data store 610 prior to becoming unavailable, it may, in some cases, allow regeneration to continue. As another example, the original data contained in the identity shards 610 stored in the data store may be used to create a new shard set, even if the data represented is incomplete, so as to preserve redundancy for what original data remains.

The regeneration process (e.g., by decoding the available shards into the original data 614 using a decode matrix 612, then re-encoding the original data 614 using a generator matrix 616 so as to generate new shards to stand in for those that are unavailable) may be similar to analogous process described elsewhere herein. As previously mentioned, the copying process to the data store 610 may be performed at the outset of the regeneration process, prior to the regeneration process, or in parallel with the regeneration process. After the regeneration process is complete, the data stored in the data store 610 may be flushed, in some cases after a delay (e.g., so as to ascertain that the shard set will remain stably available after regeneration.

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates various workflows for locating, transporting, and transacting data with data storage devices stored using inventory holders and mobile drive units, in accordance with some embodiments. Similarly to discussed elsewhere herein, in some embodiments, a data storage system implemented in accordance with the techniques described herein may store, organize, and access data storage devices (e.g., which may store shards associated with archives, in some cases on a one to one basis, as further described herein) using mobile drive units 702 (which may be similar in function and form to mobile drive units 102 discussed in connection with FIG. 1 above). As previously mentioned, the data storage devices may be allocated to, and stored in, freely placed and placeable inventory holders 704, 706 (which may be similar to inventory holder 104, 106 described in connection with FIG. 1 above).

As previously mentioned, the inventory holders 704, 706 may include a number of components that organize, separate, and/or secure the contents therein. Examples of such components may include trays, which may in some cases be vertically stacked, horizontally arranged, or otherwise arranged, that hold inventory (e.g., data storage devices), in a fashion that enables other entities to access and/or view them from some position, such as vertically from above, from the side (horizontally), or some combination thereof.

Also as previously discussed, the inventory holders 704, 706, 708 may hold different types of data storage devices relative to other inventory holders, and, in some embodiments, a given inventory holder 704, 706, 708 may hold a heterogeneous mix of two or more types of data storage devices. Data storage devices may be of any suitable type for storing data, and may be differentiated on one or more of a number of characteristics, including durability, performance, data standard, media standard (e.g., tape device standards), physical dimensions and/or configuration, age (either of the data storage device or data contained therein), data type, and the like. For example, a given tape media may be physically identical to another tape media (both in external dimensions as well as the length of the internal tape), but may be differentiated as between each other by virtue of one having a higher data capacity than another, such as may be the case if a tape conforming to an older standard is rewritten with a drive compatible with a newer standard that allows older media to be “upgraded” to the new standard.

In some embodiments, the inventory holders 704, 706, 708 may be set up in a layout that allows the mobile drive units 702 to freely traverse and engage any of the inventory holders 704, 706. In certain embodiments, one or more of the inventory holders 708, or positions where such inventory holders 708 may ordinarily be located, may be configured such that they hold few or no data storage devices (or inventory holders 108), so as to provide a “spare area” that allows for a temporarily holding spot for system optimization, e.g., in cases where service rate (as may follow a high incoming data request rate) exceeds a certain threshold above which the data storage system is temporarily unable to return a given data storage device, or inventory holder 704, 706, to an optimal position for future access. Such “spare areas” 708 may be positioned such that they are quickly accessible by, e.g., the mobile drive units, and may in some instances be interspersed throughout the overall layout of inventory holders. In some embodiments, the positioning of the inventory holders 704, 706 and “spare area” 708 may change over time, and in some of such embodiments, may not be set in advance.

In response to a request for data, e.g., to write, read, move, copy, or otherwise manipulate data associated with one or more data storage devices, the data storage system or entity associated therewith may determine which data storage devices to retrieve in accordance with the request. The data storage system may further determine the location of one or more of the inventory holders 704, 706 storing the determined data storage devices, and, using an available mobile drive unit 702, transport or otherwise cause retrieval of those inventory holders 704, 706 so as to place them in proximity of an appropriate device data station 712.

As previously discussed, the device data station 712 may be any device or other entity capable of reading one or more types of data storage devices stored on the inventory holders 704, 706. For example, the device data station may include one or more physical readers (e.g., tape drives, optical drives, data ports, and the like) that allow transaction of data between the data storage device and other portions of the data storage system, and eventually, a customer of the data storage system. In some embodiments, a given device data station 710 may be configured to read a specific type of data storage device, such as tape media. In some embodiments, a given data station 710 may be configured to read multiple types of data storage devices. In some embodiments, some device data stations may be capable of manipulating and/or transacting data with data storage devices of different types relative to one another. In some embodiments, the device data stations 710 are accessible to any mobile drive unit 702. In some embodiments, the device data stations 710 can interact with, retrieve data storage devices from, or otherwise manipulate any inventory holder 704, 706 associated with the data storage system. In other words, in such embodiments, assuming that the device data stations are capable of transacting data with the data storage media in connection with a data request, any of the device data stations may be used to service any given inventory holder having those data storage media, with no restrictions on which device data stations are able to interact with which inventory holders.

In some embodiments, the inventory holders, mobile drive units, and/or device data stations may be freely accessible relative to one another, with no restrictions as to which inventory holders are accessible to any given mobile drive unit, and no restrictions as to which mobile drive units can deliver to which device data stations. As may be contemplated, the freedom of movement and/or placement enabled by the lack of restrictions further improves time-to-retrieval and other retrieval efficiencies. In some embodiments, the inventory holders themselves are placed freely in a given facility, and may be portable without unduly affecting the operation of the overall data storage system or retrievals associated with requests thereto. In some of such embodiments, the inventory holders are marked with fiduciary markers, which identify the associated inventory holders to mobile drive units, which may implement an imaging device to read the fiduciary markers.

A device retrieval unit 710 associated with (e.g., attached to and/or controlled by) the device data station 712 selects or “picks” the appropriate data storage devices 714 in accordance with the request and manipulates the selected data storage devices so as to enable the device data station 712 to read and/or write the requisite data to/from the data storage devices in accordance with the aforementioned data request. After the data operation is complete, the data storage devices 714 may be returned to the same or different inventory holder 704, 706 from whence they were retrieved, and once the inventory holder is loaded and marked for storage, the inventory holder is relocated, e.g., by a mobile drive unit (which may be the same or different than the one that retrieved the inventory holder 704, 706 in the first instance), to a location where the mobile drive unit may perform further retrieval operations in accordance with further data requests. In some embodiments, that location may be spare area 708, whether temporarily or permanently.

As may thus be contemplated, the layout of the inventory holders 704, 706 may be dynamic, e.g., change over time, usage, and access. In some embodiments, however, the layout may be fixed, or semi-fixed, and the layout may change only periodically, or as a result of a manual process (e.g., setting of predetermined configurations of inventory holders). In some embodiments, there may be no predetermined or initial layout other than how the inventory holders 704, 706 were placed as a matter of convenience. The decisions made by the data storage system regarding the placement of the data storage devices 712 in one inventory holder or another (e.g., whether returned back to the inventory holder from which the data storage device originated, or a different data storage device) may be made so as to optimize the servicing of data requests, inventory holder retrieval events, device data station operation (e.g., dwell time), and the like, via pipelining or other optimization techniques. Furthermore, the layout of inventory holders 704, 706 may be optimized for other purposes, such as maintenance procedures (e.g., floor cleaning), and in some implementations the layout may be optimized in a fashion that allows for such purposes to be carried out without significantly affecting the servicing of data requests or the retrieval of inventory holders.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an environment implementing a heterogeneous mix of data storage device types in an inventory holder, in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, a heterogeneous mix of data storage device types 804, 806, 808 may be stored on the same tray or inventory holder 802. In such embodiments, a model may be generated by the data storage system based on characteristics of the data storage devices 804, 806, 808 to be stored on a given tray or inventory holder, and optimized for access, storage efficiency, and the like. Similarly to previously mentioned, while physical differences between the data storage devices 804, 806, and 808 are illustrated in FIG. 8 by way of schematic example, such differentiating characteristics may also include non-physical characteristics (e.g., dimensions), such as performance characteristics, data and/or media standards and/or formats, contents of the data storage devices, and the like. As such, the model may use algorithms keyed to the qualities of such characteristics and differences therebetween. For example, cubing algorithms and other space optimization procedures may be used to model differences in physical characteristics, while Markov chain analysis may be used to failure-decorrelate data sets by mixing data of, e.g., differing ages, content, security, and the like. As may be contemplated, a number of different characteristics may be taken into consideration when generating the model.

Once the model has been generated, the data storage devices are stored in accordance with the model, and the model may be further used for efficient access to the data storage devices allocated thereby. The model may be updated as the characteristics, or the identity, of the data storage devices stored in a given tray or inventory holder change over time. In some embodiments, a device retrieval unit 810 uses the model in its retrieval operations, such as may be the case if a data storage device is not directly accessible to the device retrieval unit without, e.g., moving one or more other data storage devices, trays, bins, or the like, to a different position so as to provide such direct access.

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates an environment implementing multiple trays for storing data storage devices on an inventory holder, in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the inventory holders may include a plurality 902 of trays 904, each of which is configured to store data storage devices 906, so as to improve the volumetric storage efficiency of the inventory holder relative to not using trays, bins, or similar organizational mechanisms. In some embodiments, the trays are vertically stacked with respect to one another. As may be contemplated, in such configurations, some or all of the contents of each tray (e.g., the data storage devices) may be obscured from above (and thus not directly accessible by a device retrieval unit 910 without further intervention) by virtue of being vertically stacked. In some of such embodiments, the trays may be horizontally accessible. In some embodiments, access to the contents may be from the sides of the trays, rather than from above. Although the trays are illustrated in FIG. 9 as vertically stacked, in some embodiments, the trays may be horizontally accessible (e.g., slide out horizontally) or horizontally arranged (e.g., as partitions). The trays may be independently addressable, e.g., when modeling and device retrieval takes place, and, in some embodiments, are further divided and/or accessible into smaller units (e.g., bins within trays, devices within bins).

In some embodiments, a lifting device, such as a forklift or other such device associated with a device retrieval unit, may be associated with the device retrieval unit 910 (though not necessarily) and lift vertically stacked trays out of the way so as to reveal a target tray, thus enabling access to the contents from above. Such access may be preceded and/or augmented using fiducial markers, either associated with the inventory holder, attached to the inventory holder, or both, as well as identifying markings (e.g., other fiducial markers) associated with each given tray, bin, data storage device, and the like, so as to locate and/or verify location of a given inventory holder, tray, bin, or data storage device, in connection with retrieval and/or access thereof.

FIG. 10 schematically illustrates an example process for storing and organizing data storage devices using inventory holders and mobile drive units, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1002, an entity associated with a data storage device stores or causes storage/association of shards (e.g., those generated using redundancy codes from incoming archives) on and/or with data storage devices. At step 1004, the data storage devices are allocated to or otherwise associated with inventory holders using, in some embodiments, the same entity as used in step 1002. Such entities may include computing resources, such as those described elsewhere herein.

At step 1006, in response to a request for data, e.g., directly or indirectly from a customer of a computing resource service provider or associated data storage system, the entity of step 1002 and 1004 determines one or more appropriate data storage devices for servicing the request. The request may involve data writes, reads, copies, and/or moves, and the appropriate data storage devices as determined may be made according to the manner in which the requested data was or will be associated with those data storage devices (e.g., parameters of an implemented redundancy code, etc.)

At step 1008, the inventory holders to which the data storage devices determined in connection with step 1006 are determined and located, and at step 1010, those inventory holders are retrieved, such as by a mobile drive unit. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, any available mobile drive unit may retrieve the inventory holders. At step 1012, the data storage devices are retrieved from the retrieved inventory holders, and at step 1014, data is transacted in accordance with the data request responded to at step 1006. In some embodiments, the data transactions may take place using a data device station associated with the data storage system.

FIG. 11 schematically illustrates an example process for processing, indexing, storing, and retrieving data stored on a data storage system, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1102, a resource of a data storage system, such as that implementing a redundancy code to store archives, determines which subset (e.g., quantity) of a plurality of volumes is sufficient, based on, e.g., a redundancy code to be applied to the archives, to recreate the original data to be stored. For example, in accordance with the techniques described above in connection with at least FIGS. 2 and 3, such information may be derived from predetermining the parameters of an erasure code with a specified minimum ratio of shards sufficient to regenerate the original data from which they derive to the total number of shards generated from the application of the erasure code.

At step 1104, original data, such as original data of archives received from customers of, e.g., a data storage system or a computing resource service provider as described in further detail above in connection with at least FIGS. 1-9 above, is sorted by, e.g., the data storage system or associated entity. For example, as previously described, the sort order may be implemented on one or more attributes of the incoming data.

At step 1106, one or more indices, such as sparse indices, are generated by, e.g., the data storage system, for the original data. As previously discussed in connection with at least FIGS. 1 through 9, there may be more than one index for a given volume, and such parallel indices may be of different types depending on the nature of the archives and/or original data being stored.

At step 1108, the original data is stored, e.g., by the data storage system, on the subset of volumes determined in connection with step 1102, and in the order determined in step 1104. Additionally, at step 1110, the index generated in step 1106 is stored, e.g., by the data storage system, on an appropriate entity. As previously discussed, the index may be stored as part of a shard on which the original data is stored, or, in some embodiments, may be stored on a separate resource from that which persists the volume.

At step 1112, the redundancy code is applied, e.g., by the data storage system, to the determined subset of volumes (e.g., shards, as previously discussed in connection with FIGS. 1 through 3), and additional shards containing data derived from the application of the redundancy code are stored on a predetermined quantity of volumes outside the subset determined in connection with step 1102. For example, as previously discussed, the ratio of volumes (e.g., shards) storing the original data to the overall quantity of volumes (including those storing the derived data generated in this step 1112) may be prescribed by the recovery/encoding ratio of the redundancy code applied herein.

At step 1114, in normal operation, requested data may be retrieved, e.g., by the data storage system, directly from the subset of volumes storing the original data, without necessitating retrieval and further processing (e.g., by the redundancy code) from the volumes storing the derived data generated in step 1112. However, at step 1116, if any of the volumes are determined, e.g., by the data storage system, to be unavailable, a replacement shard may be generated by the data storage system by reconstructing the original data from a quorum of the remaining shards, and re-encoding using the redundancy code to generate the replacement shard. As previously discussed in connection with FIGS. 2 through 5, the replacement shard may be the same or different from the shard detected as unavailable.

FIG. 12 schematically illustrates an example process for determining failure-decorrelated volume subsets and storing/retrieving data thereto, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1202, the quantity, configuration, and/or size of failure-decorrelated subsets of a volume set are determined by, e.g., an implementing data storage system or computing resource service provider as described below. As mentioned in connection with at least FIG. 4, such quantity, configuration, and/or size of failure-decorrelated subsets may be tuned and/or adjusted according to the system characteristics desired. Also as mentioned, the number of cohorts from which a given failure-decorrelated subset is selected may also be adjusted or adjustable as necessary.

At step 1204, the system determines which failure-decorrelated subset(s) to store archives incoming to the system. As previously mentioned, the determination may be made on any appropriate basis, such as using the attributes of the incoming archives, attributes of the volumes and/or the failure-decorrelated subset(s), and the like.

At step 1206, a redundancy code, such as a forward error correction code or erasure code, may be applied to the archives by the system. As previously discussed, such application may be made prior to, after, or in connection with the storage of original data of the archives to be stored (and in some embodiments, may result generation of shards of derived data as well as shards of original data.

At step 1208, some or all of the results of the encoding of step 1206 are stored by the system on an appropriate failure-decorrelated subset for the given archive as determined in steps 1202 and 1204. As mentioned, in some embodiments, such storage may be performed using volume-encoding techniques, and thus the original data may be directly stored and/or retrieved from some or all of the volumes without necessitating decoding unless such volumes become unavailable.

At step 1210, in connection with, e.g., a request from an owner or customer of the stored archives, the system locates the appropriate failure-decorrelated subset and retrieves the archives. The manner in which the system locates the appropriate failure-decorrelated subset may differ depending on how such failure-decorrelated subsets (and archives) are apportioned. For example, if the sequence of failure-decorrelated subsets is predetermined and keyed to a given attribute of the archive, the archive attribute may be used to identify which of the failure-decorrelated subsets is storing the data.

FIG. 13 schematically illustrates an example process for indexing original data stored on a redundancy coded data storage system, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1302, similarly to step 1104 of process 1100 described in connection with FIG. 11, original data is processed by, e.g., a data storage system, to determine the order of storage of archives containing the original data on a volume. Information regarding the sort order may be persisted on, e.g., the volume, or a separate entity from the volume, as discussed above.

At step 1304, one or more indices, such as sparse indices, are generated by, e.g., the data storage system, and point to subindexes that identify predetermined locations on the volume. The locations may be predetermined based on the parameters of the specific implementation, such as the size of the volume, the speed of reading and/or writing the volume (e.g., sequentially), the number of archives per volume, and the like. As previously discussed, the subindexes may be abstractions, or, in some embodiments, may be data or metadata elements stored on or in connection with the volume.

At step 1306, the original data sorted in step 1302 is stored by the data storage system on the volume, with subindexes associated with, pointing to, or stored at predetermined locations mentioned in step 1304. The index generated in step 1304 is stored, at step 1308, by the data storage system on a resource associated with volume, or, in some embodiments, on the volume itself, according to the techniques described above.

At step 1310, a request, such as from a client entity or other entity connected to the data storage system and/or the volume, for a subset of the original data stored on the volume, is received by the volume or the data storage system associated with the volume. The data storage system and/or the requesting entity may, as previously discussed, have access to information regarding the sort order of the original data as determined in step 1302, and, in embodiments utilizing sparse indexes, may use the index to locate an appropriate subindex at step 1312. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the appropriate subindex is the nearest location, marked by the subindex, that is sequentially prior to the requested subset of original data as stored on the volume. Once the subindex is determined in step 1312, at step 1314, the volume is sequentially read (e.g., by the data storage system or the storage device on which the volume is implemented) from the location denoted by the appropriate subindex, until the requested subset of original data is located and retrieved.

FIG. 14 schematically illustrates an example process for mitigating data loss in redundancy coded data, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1402, in response to receiving information indicating that an available quantity of shards representing one or more archives is less than, equal to, or approaching a predetermined level, an entity associated with the data storage system responsible for the associated shards determines which subset of the shards includes the unencoded, original data associated with the one or more archives. As previously discussed, the entity may include a listener or other type of resource capable of monitoring the whereabouts and/or status of the shards. The subset of the shards determined in this step 1402 may include one or more groups of shards that include identity shards. The predetermined level may be set in advance, determined dynamically, and/or adjusted manually, and may be predetermined in connection with one or more minimum quorum quantities of one or more groups of shards associated with the archive(s).

At step 1404, the subset of shards determined in step 1402 is copied to a storage entity associated with the data storage system. As previously discussed, the storage entity may be a storage device, a storage service, a cache, or other resource capable of at least temporarily storing the data. In some embodiments, also as previously discussed, the storage entity may be configured such that it is capable of “standing in” or otherwise temporarily replacing one or more components or resources used by the data storage system in ordinary data retrieval and storage operations.

At step 1406, the data storage system or associated resource(s) attempt to regenerate, using techniques described elsewhere in this disclosure, the unavailable shards associated with the archive(s). In some embodiments, the regeneration of this step 1406 may be performed in parallel with the copying operation of step 1404. In some embodiments, however, the copying process of step 1404 may be prioritized, either temporally or by allocation of system resources dedicated to related operations, so as to minimize the chance that additional shards and/or original data are lost after the information is received in step 1402.

At step 1408, in the cases where the original data becomes unavailable (e.g., the shards having such original data become unavailable) during any of the preceding steps 1402-1406, some or all of the requests associated with the archive(s) associated with that original data are directed to the temporary storage to which the original data was copied in step 1404, if the original data was successfully copied. In some embodiments, all requests for the original data are redirected to the temporary storage until such time as the quantity of shards representing such original data has been restored to a level equal to or above the predetermined level mentioned in connection with step 1402.

FIG. 15 schematically illustrates an example process for flexibly configuring a data storage system implementing inventory holders, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1502, in response to a request for data, e.g., directly or indirectly from a customer of a computing resource service provider or associated data storage system, a resource of the data storage system or the computing resource service provider determines one or more appropriate data storage devices for servicing the request, and the inventory holders to which the data storage devices are allocated is determined and located. The request may involve data writes, reads, copies, and/or moves, and the appropriate data storage devices as determined may be made according to the manner in which the requested data was or will be associated with those data storage devices (e.g., parameters of an implemented redundancy code, etc.)

At step 1504, those inventory holders are retrieved, such as by a mobile drive unit, and routed to a device data station appropriate to the data storage device type(s) as previously mentioned, and at step 1506, the device data station retrieves the specific data storage device(s) associated with the data request. As previously discussed, such device data stations may be capable of reading multiple data storage device type(s), or, in some embodiments, are specialized with respect to one such type. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, any available mobile drive unit retrieves the inventory holders.

At step 1508, data is transacted in accordance with the data request. In some embodiments, the data transactions may take place using the data device station or associated entity. At step 1510, data in connection with the data request is provided to the requestor. In some embodiments, the provision of such data may be via a temporary storage entity, such as a data storage service, and the results of suboperations resulting from the data storage request may be combined (e.g., in memory associated with the data storage system) prior to provision.

FIG. 16 schematically illustrates an example process for allocating and laying out a heterogeneous mix of data storage devices to a given inventory holder, according to the characteristics of the allocated data storage devices, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1602, data storage devices are allocated to or otherwise associated with inventory holders by an entity of the data storage system. Such entities may include computing resources, such as those described elsewhere herein. At step 1604, characteristics of the allocated data storage devices are determined by, e.g., the aforementioned entity, and used at step 1606 to determine and/or model a layout for the inventory to which the allocated data storage devices are to be allocated. In some embodiments, the modeling of step 1604 may feed back into the allocation decisions at step 1602, and vice versa. At step 1608, the data storage device(s) are stored in the inventory holder according to the layout and/or models determined in connection with step 1606.

FIG. 17 schematically illustrates an example process for using trays, which may be stacked, to store a plurality of data storage devices in an inventory tray, in accordance with some embodiments. At step 1702, data storage devices are allocated to or otherwise associated with inventory holders by an entity of the data storage system. Such entities may include computing resources, such as those described elsewhere herein. At step 1704, the data storage devices may be allocated to or otherwise associated with one or more of a plurality of trays of the inventory holders by an entity of the data storage system. Such entities may include computing resources, such as those described elsewhere herein. As previously discussed, the trays may be vertically stacked.

At step 1706, in response to a request for data, e.g., directly or indirectly from a customer of a computing resource service provider or associated data storage system, the entity of step 1702 and 1704 locates the appropriate trays holding one or more appropriate data storage devices for servicing the request. The request may involve data writes, reads, copies, and/or moves, and the appropriate data storage devices as determined may be made according to the manner in which the requested data was or will be associated with those data storage devices (e.g., parameters of an implemented redundancy code, etc.) Upon the access mentioned in connection with step 1706, the entity manipulates the data storage device(s) in the associated tray(s) as is appropriate for the data request. For example, the devices may be accessed by a device retrieval unit associated with a device data station, and, in some embodiments where stacked trays are implemented, one or more obscuring trays may be lifted so as to provide access to the tray(s) holding the data storage device, and then retrieved and provided to the data device station for data transaction.

FIG. 18 shows an example of a customer connected to a computing resource service provider in accordance with at least one embodiment. The computing resource service provider 1802 may provide a variety of services to the customer 1804 and the customer 1804 may communicate with the computing resource service provider 1802 via an interface 1826, which may be a web services interface or any other type of customer interface. While FIG. 18 shows one interface 1826 for the services of the computing resource service provider 1802, each service may have its own interface and, generally, subsets of the services may have corresponding interfaces in addition to or as an alternative to the interface 1826. The customer 1804 may be an organization that may utilize one or more of the services provided by the computing resource service provider 1802 to maintain and deliver information to its employees, which may be located in various geographical locations. Additionally, the customer 1804 may be an individual that utilizes the services of the computing resource service provider 1802 to deliver content to a working group located remotely. As shown in FIG. 18, the customer 1804 may communicate with the computing resource service provider 1802 through a network 1806, whereby the network 1806 may be a communication network, such as the Internet, an intranet or an Internet service provider (ISP) network. Some communications from the customer 1804 to the computing resource service provider 1802 may cause the computing resource service provider 1802 to operate in accordance with one or more embodiments described or a variation thereof.

The computing resource service provider 1802 may provide various computing resource services to its customers. The services provided by the computing resource service provider 1802, in this example, include a virtual computer system service 1808, a block-level data storage service 1810, a cryptography service 1812, an on-demand data storage service 1814, a notification service 1816, an authentication system 1818, a policy management service 1820, a task service 1822 and one or more other services 1824. It is noted that not all embodiments described include the services 1808-1824 described with reference to FIG. 18 and additional services may be provided in addition to or as an alternative to services explicitly described. As described, each of the services 1808-1824 may include one or more web service interfaces that enable the customer 1804 to submit appropriately configured API calls to the various services through web service requests. In addition, each of the services may include one or more service interfaces that enable the services to access each other (e.g., to enable a virtual computer system of the virtual computer system service 1808 to store data in or retrieve data from the on-demand data storage service 1814 and/or to access one or more block-level data storage devices provided by the block level data storage service 1810).

The virtual computer system service 1808 may be a collection of computing resources configured to instantiate virtual machine instances on behalf of the customer 1804. The customer 1804 may interact with the virtual computer system service 1808 (via appropriately configured and authenticated API calls) to provision and operate virtual computer systems that are instantiated on physical computing devices hosted and operated by the computing resource service provider 1802. The virtual computer systems may be used for various purposes, such as to operate as servers supporting a website, to operate business applications or, generally, to serve as computing power for the customer. Other applications for the virtual computer systems may be to support database applications, electronic commerce applications, business applications, and/or other applications. Although the virtual computer system service 1808 is shown in FIG. 18, any other computer system or computer system service may be utilized in the computing resource service provider 1802, such as a computer system or computer system service that does not employ virtualization or instantiation and instead provisions computing resources on dedicated or shared computers/servers and/or other physical devices.

The block-level data storage service 1810 may comprise one or more computing resources that collectively operate to store data for a customer 1804 using block-level storage devices (and/or virtualizations thereof). The block-level storage devices of the block-level data storage service 1810 may, for instance, be operationally attached to virtual computer systems provided by the virtual computer system service 1808 to serve as logical units (e.g., virtual drives) for the computer systems. A block-level storage device may enable the persistent storage of data used/generated by a corresponding virtual computer system where the virtual computer system service 1808 may only provide ephemeral data storage.

The computing resource service provider 1802 also includes a cryptography service 1812. The cryptography service 1812 may utilize one or more storage services of the computing resource service provider 1802 to store keys of the customers in encrypted form, whereby the keys may be usable to decrypt customer 1812 keys accessible only to particular devices of the cryptography service 1812.

The computing resource service provider 1802 further includes an on-demand data storage service 1814. The on-demand data storage service 1814 may be a collection of computing resources configured to synchronously process requests to store and/or access data. The on-demand data storage service 1814 may operate using computing resources (e.g., databases) that enable the on-demand data storage service 1814 to locate and retrieve data quickly, to allow data to be provided in responses to requests for the data. For example, the on-demand data storage service 1814 may maintain stored data in a manner such that, when a request for a data object is retrieved, the data object can be provided (or streaming of the data object can be initiated) in a response to the request. As noted, data stored in the on-demand data storage service 1814 may be organized into data objects. The data objects may have arbitrary sizes except, perhaps, for certain constraints on size. Thus, the on-demand data storage service 1814 may store numerous data objects of varying sizes. The on-demand data storage service 1814 may operate as a key value store that associates data objects with identifiers of the data objects that may be used by the customer 1804 to retrieve or perform other operations in connection with the data objects stored by the on-demand data storage service 1814.

In the environment illustrated in FIG. 18, a notification service 1816 is included. The notification service 1816 may comprise a collection of computing resources collectively configured to provide a web service or other interface and browser-based management console. The management console can be used to configure topics for which customers seek to receive notifications, configure applications (or people), subscribe clients to the topics, publish messages, or configure delivery of the messages over clients' protocol of choice (i.e., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), e-mail and short message service (SMS), among others). The notification service 1816 may provide notifications to clients using a “push” mechanism without the need to check periodically or “poll” for new information and updates. The notification service 1816 may further be used for various purposes such as monitoring applications executing in the virtual computer system service 1808, workflow systems, time-sensitive information updates, mobile applications, and many others.

As illustrated in FIG. 18, the computing resource service provider 1802, in various embodiments, includes an authentication system 1818 and a policy management service 1820. The authentication system 1818, in an embodiment, is a computer system (i.e., collection of computing resources) configured to perform operations involved in authentication of users of the customer. For instance, one of the services 1808-1816 and 1820-1824 may provide information from a user to the authentication system 1818 to receive information in return that indicates whether the user requests are authentic.

The policy management service 1820, in an embodiment, is a computer system configured to manage policies on behalf of customers (such as customer 1804) of the computing resource service provider 1802. The policy management service 1820 may include an interface that enables customers to submit requests related to the management of policy. Such requests may, for instance, be requests to add, delete, change, or otherwise modify policy for a customer or for other administrative actions, such as providing an inventory of existing policies and the like.

The computing resource service provider 1802, in various embodiments, is also equipped with a task service 1822. The task service 1822 is configured to receive a task package from the customer 1804 and enable executing tasks as dictated by the task package. The task service 1822 may be configured to use any resource of the computing resource service provider 1802, such as one or more instantiated virtual machines or virtual hosts, for executing the task. The task service 1824 may configure the one or more instantiated virtual machines or virtual hosts to operate using a selected operating system and/or a selected execution application in accordance with a requirement of the customer 1804.

The computing resource service provider 1802 additionally maintains one or more other services 1824 based at least in part on the needs of its customers 1804. For instance, the computing resource service provider 1802 may maintain a database service for its customers 1804. A database service may be a collection of computing resources that collectively operate to run one or more databases for one or more customers 1804. The customer 1804 may operate and manage a database from the database service by utilizing appropriately configured API calls. This, in turn, may allow a customer 1804 to maintain and potentially scale the operations in the database. Other services include, but are not limited to, object-level archival data storage services, services that manage and/or monitor other services.

The computing resource service provider 1802 further includes an archival storage service 1824. The archival storage service 1824 may comprise a collection of computing resources that collectively operate to provide storage for data archiving and backup of customer data. The data may comprise one or more data files that may be combined to form an archive. The archival storage service 1824 may be configured to persistently store data that may be infrequently accessed and for which long retrieval times are acceptable to a customer utilizing the archival storage service 1824. A customer may interact with the archival storage service 1824 (for example, through appropriately configured API calls made to the archival storage service 1824) to generate one or more archives, upload and retrieve the one or more archives or monitor the generation, upload or retrieval of the one or more archives.

The computing resource service provider 1802 additionally maintains one or more other services 1826 based at least in part on the needs of its customers 1804. For instance, the computing resource service provider 1802 may maintain a database service for its customers 1804. A database service may be a collection of computing resources that collectively operate to run one or more databases for one or more customers 1804. The customer 1804 may operate and manage a database from the database service by utilizing appropriately configured API calls. This, in turn, may allow a customer 1804 to maintain and potentially scale the operations in the database. Other services include, but are not limited to, object-level archival data storage services, services that manage and/or monitor other services.

FIG. 19 shows an illustrative example of a data storage service in accordance with various embodiments. The data storage service 1900 may be a service of a computing resource provider used to operate an on-demand data storage service such as described above in connection with FIG. 18. As illustrated in FIG. 19, the data storage service 1900 includes various subsystems such as a request processing subsystem 1902 and a management subsystem 1904. The data storage service 1900 may also include a plurality of data storage servers 1906 and a metadata storage 1908, which may store metadata about various data objects stored among the data storage servers 1906 as described. In an embodiment, the request processing subsystem 1902 is a collection of computing resources, such as webservers and application servers, collectively configured to process requests submitted to the data storage service 1900. The request processing subsystem 1902, for example, may include one or more webservers that provide a web service interface to enable customers of the data storage service 1900 to submit requests to be processed by the data storage service 1900. The request processing subsystem 1902 may include computers systems configured to make various determinations in connection with the processing of requests, such as whether policy allows fulfillment of a request, whether requests are authentic (e.g., electronically signed using a suitable cryptographic key) and otherwise.

Components of the request processing subsystem may interact with other components of the data storage service 1900 (e.g., through network communications). For example, some requests submitted to the request processing subsystem 1902 may involve the management of computing resources which may include data objects stored by the data storage servers 1906. The request processing subsystem 1902, for example, may receive and process requests to modify computing resources. For instance, in some examples, data objects are logically organized into logical data containers. Data objects associated with a logical data container may, for example, be said to be in the logical data container. Requests to the data processing subsystem 1902 may include requests for creating logical data containers, deleting logical data containers, providing an inventory of a logical data container, providing or updating access control policy with respect to one or more logical data containers and the like.

The requests may be processed by the management subsystem 1904 upon receipt by the request processing subsystem 1902. If applicable, various requests processed by the request processing subsystem 1902 and/or management subsystem 1904, may result in the management subsystem 1904 updating metadata associated with data objects and logical data containers stored in the metadata store 1908. Other requests that may be processed by the request processing subsystem 1902 include requests to perform operations in connection with data objects. The requests, for example, may include requests to upload data objects to the data storage service 1900, to download data objects from the data storage service 1900, to delete data objects stored by the data storage service 1900 and/or other operations that may be performed.

Requests processed by the request processing subsystem 1902 that involve operations on data objects (upload, download, delete, e.g.) may include interaction between the request processing subsystem 1902 and one or more data storage servers 1906. The data storage servers 1906 may be computer system communicatively coupled with one or more storage devices for the persistent of data objects. For example, in order to process a request to upload a data object, the request processing subsystem may transmit data to a data storage server 1906 for persistent storage. It is noted, however, that in some embodiments, client (e.g., customer) computer systems may transmit data directly to the data storage servers 1906 instead of through servers in the request processing subsystem.

In some embodiments, the request processing subsystem 1902 transmits data to multiple data storage servers 1906 for the purposes of redundantly storing the data to allow the retrievability of data in the event of failure of an individual data storage server 1906 and/or associated data storage device. For example, in some embodiments, the request processing subsystem uses a redundancy in coding scheme such as erasure coding to deconstruct a data object into multiple parts that are stored among the data storage servers 1906. The parts may be configured such that if access to a certain number of parts is lost, the data object may nevertheless be reconstructible from the remaining parts that remain accessible.

To enable efficient transfer of data between the request processing subsystem 1902 and the data storage servers 1906 and/or generally to enable quick processing of requests, the request processing subsystem 1902 may include one or more databases that enable the location of data among the data storage servers 1906. For example, the request processing subsystem 1902 may operate a key value store that serves to associate identifiers of data objects with locations among the data storage servers 1906 for accessing data of the data objects.

FIG. 20 illustrates aspects of an example environment 2000 for implementing aspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will be appreciated, although a web-based environment is used for purposes of explanation, different environments may be used, as appropriate, to implement various embodiments. The environment includes an electronic client device 2002, which can include any appropriate device operable to send and/or receive requests, messages, or information over an appropriate network 2004 and, in some embodiments, convey information back to a user of the device. Examples of such client devices include personal computers, cell phones, handheld messaging devices, laptop computers, tablet computers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants, embedded computer systems, electronic book readers, and the like. The network can include any appropriate network, including an intranet, the Internet, a cellular network, a local area network, a satellite network or any other such network and/or combination thereof. Components used for such a system can depend at least in part upon the type of network and/or environment selected. Protocols and components for communicating via such a network are well known and will not be discussed herein in detail. Communication over the network can be enabled by wired or wireless connections and combinations thereof. In this example, the network includes the Internet, as the environment includes a web server 2006 for receiving requests and serving content in response thereto, although for other networks an alternative device serving a similar purpose could be used as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

The illustrative environment includes at least one application server 2008 and a data store 2010. It should be understood that there can be several application servers, layers or other elements, processes or components, which may be chained or otherwise configured, which can interact to perform tasks such as obtaining data from an appropriate data store. Servers, as used herein, may be implemented in various ways, such as hardware devices or virtual computer systems. In some contexts, servers may refer to a programming module being executed on a computer system. As used herein, unless otherwise stated or clear from context, the term “data store” refers to any device or combination of devices capable of storing, accessing and retrieving data, which may include any combination and number of data servers, databases, data storage devices and data storage media, in any standard, distributed, virtual or clustered environment. The application server can include any appropriate hardware, software and firmware for integrating with the data store as needed to execute aspects of one or more applications for the client device, handling some or all of the data access and business logic for an application. The application server may provide access control services in cooperation with the data store and is able to generate content including, but not limited to, text, graphics, audio, video and/or other content usable to be provided to the user, which may be served to the user by the web server in the form of HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”), Extensible Markup Language (“XML”), JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (“CSS”) or another appropriate client-side structured language. Content transferred to a client device may be processed by the client device to provide the content in one or more forms including, but not limited to, forms that are perceptible to the user audibly, visually and/or through other senses including touch, taste, and/or smell. The handling of all requests and responses, as well as the delivery of content between the client device 2002 and the application server 2008, can be handled by the web server using PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (“PHP”), Python, Ruby, Perl, Java, HTML, XML or another appropriate server-side structured language in this example. It should be understood that the web and application servers are not required and are merely example components, as structured code discussed herein can be executed on any appropriate device or host machine as discussed elsewhere herein. Further, operations described herein as being performed by a single device may, unless otherwise clear from context, be performed collectively by multiple devices, which may form a distributed and/or virtual system.

The data store 2010 can include several separate data tables, databases, data documents, dynamic data storage schemes and/or other data storage mechanisms and media for storing data relating to a particular aspect of the present disclosure. For example, the data store illustrated may include mechanisms for storing production data 2012 and user information 2016, which can be used to serve content for the production side. The data store also is shown to include a mechanism for storing log data 2014, which can be used for reporting, analysis or other such purposes. It should be understood that there can be many other aspects that may need to be stored in the data store, such as page image information and access rights information, which can be stored in any of the above listed mechanisms as appropriate or in additional mechanisms in the data store 2010. The data store 2010 is operable, through logic associated therewith, to receive instructions from the application server 2008 and obtain, update or otherwise process data in response thereto. The application server 2008 may provide static, dynamic, or a combination of static and dynamic data in response to the received instructions. Dynamic data, such as data used in web logs (blogs), shopping applications, news services and other such applications may be generated by server-side structured languages as described herein or may be provided by a content management system (“CMS”) operating on, or under the control of, the application server. In one example, a user, through a device operated by the user, might submit a search request for a certain type of item. In this case, the data store might access the user information to verify the identity of the user and can access the catalog detail information to obtain information about items of that type. The information then can be returned to the user, such as in a results listing on a web page that the user is able to view via a browser on the user device 2002. Information for a particular item of interest can be viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser. It should be noted, however, that embodiments of the present disclosure are not necessarily limited to the context of web pages, but may be more generally applicable to processing requests in general, where the requests are not necessarily requests for content.

Each server typically will include an operating system that provides executable program instructions for the general administration and operation of that server and typically will include a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a hard disk, random access memory, read only memory, etc.) storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of the server, allow the server to perform its intended functions. Suitable implementations for the operating system and general functionality of the servers are known or commercially available and are readily implemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly in light of the disclosure herein.

The environment, in one embodiment, is a distributed and/or virtual computing environment utilizing several computer systems and components that are interconnected via communication links, using one or more computer networks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operate equally well in a system having fewer or a greater number of components than are illustrated in FIG. 20. Thus, the depiction of the system 2000 in FIG. 20 should be taken as being illustrative in nature and not limiting to the scope of the disclosure.

The various embodiments further can be implemented in a wide variety of operating environments, which in some cases can include one or more user computers, computing devices or processing devices which can be used to operate any of a number of applications. User or client devices can include any of a number of general purpose personal computers, such as desktop, laptop or tablet computers running a standard operating system, as well as cellular, wireless and handheld devices running mobile software and capable of supporting a number of networking and messaging protocols. Such a system also can include a number of workstations running any of a variety of commercially-available operating systems and other known applications for purposes such as development and database management. These devices also can include other electronic devices, such as dummy terminals, thin-clients, gaming systems and other devices capable of communicating via a network. These devices also can include virtual devices such as virtual machines, hypervisors and other virtual devices capable of communicating via a network.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure utilize at least one network that would be familiar to those skilled in the art for supporting communications using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”), User Datagram Protocol (“UDP”), protocols operating in various layers of the Open System Interconnection (“OSI”) model, File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”), Universal Plug and Play (“UpnP”), Network File System (“NFS”), Common Internet File System (“CIFS”) and AppleTalk. The network can be, for example, a local area network, a wide-area network, a virtual private network, the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network, an infrared network, a wireless network, a satellite network, and any combination thereof.

In embodiments utilizing a web server, the web server can run any of a variety of server or mid-tier applications, including Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) servers, FTP servers, Common Gateway Interface (“CGI”) servers, data servers, Java servers, Apache servers, and business application servers. The server(s) also may be capable of executing programs or scripts in response to requests from user devices, such as by executing one or more web applications that may be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any programming language, such as Java®, C, C# or C++, or any scripting language, such as Ruby, PHP, Perl, Python or TCL, as well as combinations thereof. The server(s) may also include database servers, including without limitation those commercially available from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase and IBM® as well as open-source servers such as MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, MongoDB, and any other server capable of storing, retrieving, and accessing structured or unstructured data. Database servers may include table-based servers, document-based servers, unstructured servers, relational servers, non-relational servers or combinations of these and/or other database servers.

The environment can include a variety of data stores and other memory and storage media as discussed above. These can reside in a variety of locations, such as on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) one or more of the computers or remote from any or all of the computers across the network. In a particular set of embodiments, the information may reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilled in the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the computers, servers or other network devices may be stored locally and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includes computerized devices, each such device can include hardware elements that may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements including, for example, at least one central processing unit (“CPU” or “processor”), at least one input device (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller, touch screen or keypad) and at least one output device (e.g., a display device, printer or speaker). Such a system may also include one or more storage devices, such as disk drives, optical storage devices and solid-state storage devices such as random access memory (“RAM”) or read-only memory (“ROM”), as well as removable media devices, memory cards, flash cards, etc.

Such devices also can include a computer-readable storage media reader, a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infrared communication device, etc.), and working memory as described above. The computer-readable storage media reader can be connected with, or configured to receive, a computer-readable storage medium, representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices as well as storage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information. The system and various devices also typically will include a number of software applications, modules, services or other elements located within at least one working memory device, including an operating system and application programs, such as a client application or web browser. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments may have numerous variations from that described above. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets) or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed.

Storage media and computer readable media for containing code, or portions of code, can include any appropriate media known or used in the art, including storage media and communication media, such as, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmission of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data, including RAM, ROM, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (“EEPROM”), flash memory or other memory technology, Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (“CD-ROM”), digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the system device. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the various embodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

Other variations are within the spirit of the present disclosure. Thus, while the disclosed techniques are susceptible to various modifications and alternative constructions, certain illustrated embodiments thereof are shown in the drawings and have been described above in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the invention to the specific form or forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including” and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. The term “connected,” when unmodified and referring to physical connections, is to be construed as partly or wholly contained within, attached to or joined together, even if there is something intervening. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. The use of the term “set” (e.g., “a set of items”) or “subset” unless otherwise noted or contradicted by context, is to be construed as a nonempty collection comprising one or more members. Further, unless otherwise noted or contradicted by context, the term “subset” of a corresponding set does not necessarily denote a proper subset of the corresponding set, but the subset and the corresponding set may be equal.

Conjunctive language, such as phrases of the form “at least one of A, B, and C,” or “at least one of A, B and C,” unless specifically stated otherwise or otherwise clearly contradicted by context, is otherwise understood with the context as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may be either A or B or C, or any nonempty subset of the set of A and B and C. For instance, in the illustrative example of a set having three members, the conjunctive phrases “at least one of A, B, and C” and “at least one of A, B and C” refer to any of the following sets: {A}, {B}, {C}, {A, B}, {A, C}, {B, C}, {A, B, C}. Thus, such conjunctive language is not generally intended to imply that certain embodiments require at least one of A, at least one of B and at least one of C each to be present.

Operations of processes described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. Processes described herein (or variations and/or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions and may be implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs or one or more applications) executing collectively on one or more processors, by hardware or combinations thereof. The code may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory.

The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments of the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.

Embodiments of this disclosure are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention. Variations of those embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate and the inventors intend for embodiments of the present disclosure to be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the scope of the present disclosure unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: generating, from a plurality of received archives, a set of shards representing the plurality of archives; storing the set of shards on a set of storage devices; allocating the set of storage devices to a plurality of inventory holders such that a subset of the set of data storage devices is allocated to at least one inventory holder of the plurality of inventory holders and a remainder of the set of storage devices outside of the subset is allocated to a different inventory holder of the plurality of inventory holders; and in response to a data request associated with at least a portion of the plurality of received archives, at least: determining, based on the data request, a subset of the set of shards to retrieve; locating one or more of the inventory holders associated with at least one subset of the set of data storage devices upon which the determined subset of shards is stored; retrieving, using at least one mobile drive unit capable of retrieving at least one of the plurality of inventory holders, the located inventory holders; routing the retrieved inventory holders to one or more device data stations capable of transacting data with member data storage devices of the least one subset of the set of storage devices to which the retrieved inventory holders are associated; retrieving, using at least one device retrieval unit associated with the device data stations, the at least one subset of the set of data storage devices from the associated inventory holders; transacting, by the device data stations, the data with the at least one subset of the set of storage devices; returning the at least one subset of the set of data storage devices to a respective inventory holder; and placing the retrieved inventory holders in a location where they are capable of being retrieved using the at least one mobile drive unit.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the data storage devices are tapes.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the one or more device data stations are capable of reading more than one type of data storage device.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the inventory holders include a plurality of stacked trays, each of which is capable of holding at least one type of data storage device.
 5. A system, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory comprising instructions that, in response to execution by the at least one processor, cause the system to at least: allocate a set of storage devices to a plurality of inventory holders; and in response to a data request associated with data associated with a portion of the allocated set of storage devices, at least: determine, based on the data request, which subset of the portion of the set of storage devices to retrieve; locate at least one respective inventory holder to which the determined subset of storage devices is associated; retrieve, using at least one mobile drive unit capable of retrieving any of the plurality of inventory holders, the located inventory holders so as to enable at least one device retrieval unit associated with at least one device data station to access the determined subset of storage devices; and transact, using the at least one device data station, the data with the determined subset of storage devices.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the instructions further cause the system to store data on the set of storage devices.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the system to receive the data from a customer of the one or more services.
 8. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the system to store the data on the set of storage devices by at least processing the data using a redundancy code so as to generate a set of shards representing the data.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the set of shards includes identity shards that contain a portion of an original form of the data, and encoded shards representing an encoded form of the data.
 10. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the system to store each shard of the set of shards on a respective data storage device of the set of data storage devices.
 11. The system of claim 5, wherein the instructions further cause the system to allocate the set of storage devices to the plurality of inventory holders such that a subset of the set of data storage devices is allocated to at least one inventory holder of the plurality of inventory holders and a remainder of the set of storage devices outside of the subset is allocated to a different inventory holder of the plurality of inventory holders.
 12. The system of claim 5, wherein the set of data storage devices includes at least a set of tapes.
 13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, if executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least: cause storage of data storage devices by at least: allocating the data storage devices to a plurality of inventory holders; and placing the plurality of inventory holders in locations accessible to any of at least one mobile drive unit associated with the computer system; and in response to a data request associated with a subset of the data storage devices, at least: determine at least one respective inventory holder to which the subset of storage devices is allocated; cause, using at least one of the at least one mobile drive unit, retrieval of the determined at least one inventory holder so as to enable at least one device retrieval unit associated with at least one device data station to access the subset of storage devices; and cause, using the at least one device data station, transaction of data associated with the data request, with the subset of storage devices.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein at least some of the plurality of inventory holders each include a plurality of stackable trays capable of holding the data storage devices.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, if executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to cause the storage of the data storage devices by allocating the data storage devices to specific trays of the plurality of stackable trays.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, if executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to place the plurality of inventory holders such that at least some of the locations remain clear of any of the inventory holders.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the computer system and the inventory holders are located in the same physical facility.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, if executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to locate the determined at least one inventory holder using an imaging device associated with the mobile drive unit.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, if executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to locate the determined at least one inventory holder by locating at least one fiducial marker associated with the at least one inventory holder.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the data storage devices include at least one of tapes, hard disk drives, memory resistors, solid state disk drives, or optical media. 